# CVE-2026-43428: USB: core: Limit the length of unkillable synchronous timeouts

> Attackers can cause indefinite task hangs in the Linux kernel via USB APIs by exploiting unlimited unkillable synchronous timeouts.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 8 May 2026
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-43428, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43428, GHSA-xwm3-969p-pfmw, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-43428, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-43428, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-43428, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-43428

## What is CVE-2026-43428?

CVE-2026-43428 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 8 May 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

USB: core: Limit the length of unkillable synchronous timeouts

The usb_control_msg(), usb_bulk_msg(), and usb_interrupt_msg() APIs in
usbcore allow unlimited timeout durations.  And since they use
uninterruptible waits, this leaves open the possibility of hanging a
task for an indefinitely long time, with no way to kill it short of
unplugging the target device.

To prevent this sort of problem, enforce a maximum limit on the length
of these unkillable timeouts.  The limit chosen here, somewhat
arbitrarily, is 60 seconds.  On many systems (although not all) this
is short enough to avoid triggering the kernel's hung-task detector.

In addition, clear up the ambiguity of negative timeout values by
treating them the same as 0, i.e., using the maximum allowed timeout.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-43428?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-43428?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-43428 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43428 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-43428 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-43428 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 8 May 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43428 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43428/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43428/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-43428
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-43428
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-43428

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43428/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.